It's claimed that dozens of uninsured homeowners are living in uninhabitable properties, nearly six months after December's floods.

Carlisle Ambassadors, which is a volunteer group, is running a project asking people to give up some of their free time to help the recovery.

We're just saying, whatever is in your hand, whatever you're good at, whatever you're passionate about, whatever your business is, whatever your trade is, would you give it away for one day.

– Andy Fearon, Carlisle Ambassadors

The Give A Day to the City project runs from 6th - 12th June. 13 different projects are running, including House to Home, which is helping several different flood affected homes and another is clearing the Sheepmount football pitches. Roger Smith, the Managing Director of Thomas Graham is in charge of that project

Lot's of people want to get involved and want to help people. If we don't clear the Sheepmount area people can't play football next year. Quite a few colleagues are getting involved and we're still looking for volunteers.

– Roger Smith

You can find out more about the Give A Day To The City projects by clicking here

Police have branded the actions of a man jailed for burglary offences at flood-hit homes in Carlisle as 'despicable'.

Martin Howlett, 31, formerly of Warwick Road, Carlisle, admitted three burglaries, an attempted burglary and theft and was sentenced to five years in prison at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday.

The crimes relate to incidents on Warwick Road, Petteril Street and Eldred Street.

Howlett was arrested on Saturday 9 January after he was spotted by security guards as they patrolled in the Warwick Road area and heard a loud bang from Petteril Street.

“Martin Howlett targeted flood-affected properties in order to gain from people who had been victims to December’s devastating floods. His actions were despicable as communities rallied to support each other.

“Howlett is now in prison and we are glad that he has been brought to justice for his crimes and the sentence reflects that.

“I would like to take this opportunity to praise the work of the security officers in alerting officers to Howlett’s offences.

“Carlisle is still recovering from the effects of the floods and we hope that Howlett’s sentence provides reassurance to those affected.”

As the flood waters drained away, the city - and the country's politicians - had to decide how to try to stop it happening again. Straight away the decision was made to protect Carlisle and other areas with large flood defences. But how effective are they?